Mute
by H-Argo
Summary: You would think there would be enough trouble communicating without laryngitis to contend with. Whatever will the merry group do about this?
1. Laryngitis

He pretended not to care but at the first whiff of her scent he was off for the bone eaters well at a faster pace than an indifferent person would typically choose. Somehow she'd already managed to haul herself and her monstrous yellow pack out of the structure before he got there. She flashed a sunny smile at him and offered a happy wave in way of greeting. In return he folded his arms over his chest and began walking towards the village slowly enough for her to catch up easily. She smelled odd today, not quite all there.

"Keh, took you long enough. How did your tests go?"

She smiled again and presented a casual shrug. Now _he_ knew something was up normally she didn't miss an opportunity to chatter about the latest up to the second news about her life and several other peoples' lives. It was then he noticed a shiny white square with pens clipped onto a belt at her hip.

"What's this?" he asked poking it with a claw.

Unclipping it from her hip she quickly wrote a phrase on it, he scrutinized the characters unimpressed. She waited and it was starting to dawn on her that he might not comprehend the marks. Her face was starting to fall in disappointment.

"Just say what you need to say I'm right here" he grumbled

She favored him with a dry look, and stalked past slightly straining under the weight of her pack. He grabbed the strap and lifted the bag and his traveling companion off the ground. She looked exasperated but more than that she looked pale and drained.

"Are you sick or something?" he muttered sniffing at her slightly

She gave him a look that needed no words 'now he gets it'

It was at that moment the rest of the group crested the hill and made their way towards them. Shippo sprinted calling kagome's name the whole way. The little fox cub took in the situation and snarled "Quit picking on kagome!" with that he leapt at his foe sinking his teeth into a fleshy area above the ankle with his needle sharp baby teeth.

Inu-yasha yelped in pain and dropped kagome and the bag in an unceremonious heap she winced in pain but made no other noise. Rushing graciously to her side miroku offered a gentle hand to help her up and for once didn't try anything inappropriate in favor of examining the inscription on the board at her hip.

The characters were unfamiliar in the calligraphy style that seemed somewhat artless but he could still make out the basic meaning. The racket of the quarreling males was becoming tiresome and sango looked ready to step in and add all the more to the din.

"Excuse me everyone, lady kagome is sick with laryngitis so if you would please get along things will be much easier on us in the coming days" For not being familiar with the ailment his calm, yet firm voice magically got all the name calling and biting to end instantly.

Kagome gave him a thankful and relieved smile. She rubbed out the old message and wrote out a new message; before quickly erasing that line as well.

-I'm so glad you can read-

He smiled beamingly "It seems as though I will be your only interpreter then"

Kiarra growled next to him and shippo scooped her up and listened to her mewling "Kiarra says she can read a little as long as it's simple."

At this news kagome looked hopefully at sango who shook her head in the negative. "Sorry kagome, it just wasn't a priority in my training"

Kagome gave her an expression of understanding and made an 'oh well' gesture. So that left kiarra who needed Shippo to translate or miroku. This was just not her week.

"What the hell is laryngitis?" Inu-yasha gruffly demanded.

Kagome quickly began listing out symptoms and approximate dates of progression through the illness. It appeared that she was in the last phase with a sub-note of being non-contagious.

Miroku hummed contemplatively "To sum this up: We can't catch your illness, you have already endured the worst of it, and the only remaining issues are loss of voice, pain, and depleted stamina?"

Kagome nodded in the affirmative but still gamely hefted her pack as if to prove she could still keep up with her comrades. Sango deftly removed her of the luggage and began heading north, kiarra transformed and knocked kagome on to her back and stalked quickly after her mistress. Kagome quickly scrawled another note and miroku smiled slyly at it as he fell into a stride alongside the fire cat.

"Lady Kagome thanks you all profusely for being such fantastic friends"

Inu-yasha waved it off with a bashful "Don't mention it"

Shippo and Sango smiled warmly with the trite expression "That's what friends are for" it hadn't sounded like something kagome would say but they would allow the monk to embellish a little if he still got the message across to the rest of them.

Kiarra glanced back read the board before it could be cleaned -No need to fuss over me I can still be of use-

Kagome was eyeing the monk with a conflicted expression torn between the fact he hadn't relayed her words, and gratitude for being thoughtful.

-Are you going to misinterpret everything I say?-

Miroku grinned innocently "For all your education, there are days that you strike me as a simple sort of woman"

Bristling slightly at this she urged him with a gesture to explain a bit better. Smirking to himself he informed her quite merrily in a conspirators tone "I simply passed on what you meant to say"

Inu-yasha jumped in front of miroku with a warning growl taking a defensive posture as he none to subtly began guarding kagome.

"Whats that inu-yasha? You would like to apologize for dropping her earlier? How very considerate of you! Glad everything is cleared up" With a satisfied nod he trotted ahead to keep Sango company. Both youths looked after him in bewilderment at how skillfully he managed to bamboozle them without effort. Kiarra huffed in amusement to herself, and inu-yashas ears swiveled and twitched.

"So you can't make noise at all?" He queried

Kagome nodded

"Very interesting" the hanyou leered his eyes fixed on Shippo, kiarra caught wind of his intention and nipped him in warning. Putting on his best 'I didn't do anything' look he fixed her with a challenging glare. The rest of the afternoon was spent in their usual trudging towards the horizon to the tune of the world and the jangling rings of mirokus staff.


	2. Failure to communicate

As Miroku approached sango took a few involuntary steps away to the side to allow for a wider berth between them. He noticed and his eternal smile lessened for an expression that verged on pensive. They walked in silence for a while before he took an experimental step closer. She reacted the way he expected by taking a step further away it really was tiresome.

"My dear sango do you feel that a wolf is evil for hunting the deer?" he asked amiably

"What kind of question is that monk?" her tone was guarded as is waiting for a trap of words

"Humor me; good conversation can make a long journey feel short"

"If the wolf does not hunt it cannot eat and would surely starve, it is not evil" she recited it as though it were a creed on some levels it might have been for she herself was a huntress.

"To hunt demons is sustaining?" he encouraged

"Of course! It supported an entire community and time honored traditions while keeping villages in the surrounding areas safe" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion "It wasn't as though we went about picking fights and killing needlessly"

He ignored the edge she put in her words and cordially continued "Are humans solitary or of a pack mentality?"

She was starting to see where he was going with this "It's not the same houshi, it differs for each person you can't just generalize our race completely."

"Of course not," He agreed readily "Wouldn't you say that our merry group is a pack of sorts"

Inu-yasha had been casually eavesdropping but now he and Shippo pricked their ears and attention towards the conflicted human woman. Feeling their gaze she looked back feeling hedged in. Rather than answer she set down kagome's pack in the gathering twilight.

"This is a good spot to stop for today, there's water nearby." With that she stalked off the trail and through the grass towards the tree line.

Shippo called after her "Hey! Where are you going?"

"Hunting" she called back at them.

Miroku began building a small fire pit and inuyasha came closer to squat next to him muttering a sympathetic "Ouch," he didn't even bristle when kagome came to give their friend a comforting rub on the arm. Miroku continued the little chores of setting up camp and shrugged "Like the good lady said, it's not the same."

Whether any of the group wanted to believe it or be part of it or not, the rag tag assortment of sentient beings was the closest to thing to family any of them were going to get for a while if at all.  
If he tossed the first of the firewood into the ring of stones with less than a good natured air no one faulted him for it. Shippo and kagome brought back enough water for both tea and ramen and the group ate sparingly of their provisions. By the time Sango returned it was fully dark and she seemed spattered by the gore of her kill. A young doe fat on the spring grasses was slung over her shoulder; Inu-yasha quirked an eyebrow at it from his roost.

"We're not going to be able to eat all that before we leave tomorrow" He chided

"We won't have to," she didn't explain further but took a seat next to miroku and offered him a small leather pouch before beginning the work of skewering the meat on sticks to roast over the fire. If he didn't know better the monk would have called the gesture apologetic. Inside was a collection of dried and candied nuts and fruit his favorite, they had all received a similar portion after helping a village a number of weeks ago. Everyone had eaten theirs except her apparently.

"I was not aware that you have no fondness for sweets" he assumed

"Its not that, I simply thought they might be useful."

"Is that your way of saying you saved them for me?" he flashed his most charming smile and added in a sassy wink as he popped an apricot into his mouth with delight.

She huffed in laughter that didn't reach her eyes "It wouldn't be the first time I've taken offense where none was given,"

"People don't like thinking about difficult comparisons" he had meant it to sound reassuring and placating, but after it left his mouth it sounded quite the opposite. Keeping a chestnut he drew the strings of the pouch closed and sat it on the ground a respectful distance away from her person and smiled once more "Thank you for sharing"

She nodded curtly and buried her small knife with a deep stab into the deer and stood to stretch.

"Kagome would you like to bathe with me? Shippo can you put on a little extra meat to cook?" She posed both phrases as a question for the sake of politeness but both queries were spoken as statements and both of the addressed persons complied.

Shippo settled into his chore with glee, in the sense that he would put a chunk on a stick for roasting and then take a piece for himself the way a human child would with berries. Inu-yasha jumped down shortly after to help in the endeavor for the same reason. Trying to speak around a mouthful of venison he observed dryly "Wonder what crawled up her ass and died recently, she's not on her courses"

Miroku blanched slightly "Lovely dinner conversation my friend, but as to her state of mood I'd like to claim it's me but the prospect of getting anywhere near her rear seems unlikely with her formidable defenses"

"Who's bein' gross now bozou? Cut your losses while you can she ain't some naïve village girl" He offered

"It will be with difficulty if at all" he sighed dejectedly

Inu-yashas eyes widened slightly then narrowed suspiciously "Are you saying you got feelin's for her?"  
_  
Judgment,  
pre-conceived notions,  
lack of basic understanding…  
__**  
**_**"**Whether I do or do not is a trivial topic" he grabbed one of the cooked skewers and occupied his mouth with something other than words and attempted to fill his mind with nothing but the flavor, with the feel of the night air, the waxing moon, and the unforgiving soil he lay on. As the Buddha would say you can't always change the world but you can always change how you see it. Miroku went over several scriptures in the back of his mind he still saw lack of trust in his companions maybe they were not a pack after all.

As he finished the skewer he tossed it in the fire and came to the conclusion that tonight he simply was not a good monk and went a short distance away from the fire to curl up for sleep. He would wake up with a refreshed perspective especially is there was leftovers, and if not he would at least be rested. As he drifted off to dreaming he tried to envision naïve village girls, concubines, and other paramours that he had or had not courted successfully, it worked for the first five minutes and after that he knew no more.


End file.
